It's no big surprise,
actually it's no surprise whatsoever that Antonio Pessoa
comes up with this watercolor entitled ART DEALER. It
might sound funny that I put it this way, but fact is,
they had it coming. Ever since his fine art first steps
in Amsterdam up to now, his relation-chemistry with
art dealers has always been an immense display of funny,
even shocking episodes marked by enough glaringly vivid
sensationalism, to become an excellent movie script
and consequently a very probable worldwide successful
motion picture. Along the past ten years, throughout
our punctual (off the record) late evening, sometimes
all night long pleasurable conversations, I've become
more and more familiarized with the artist's rich content
memories, particularly concerning this behavior pattern
of the art merchants he has been stumbling upon along
the way. The harassed petty annoying process of transforming
them into business partners, in spite of always having
provided him with interesting, handy, global promotional
and specifically financial facilities, there was always
the other side of the coin, so very often growing up
in the form of politely disguised suspicion, generally
ending up with a mutual resigned attitude based upon
"if you can't beat them, why not join them"
sort of idea, if you get my drift. Antonio Pessoa's
strategy of using the art dealers passion for fast profitable
income, has increased in quality and know-how expertise,
systematically provoking raised eyebrows and cold shoulders,
a situation sometimes rather difficult to fit well into
the general décor, thereby issuing no guarantee
to both one-of-a-kind parties that the Grand Pipe of
Peace smoking session was about to be the next step
of the almost take it or leave it negotiations meeting.
Thanks to this year-after-year educational intensive
experience and real-life tutorials, a considerable immunological
tolerance has been remarkably developed as time went
by, gradually providing the artist with a rather cool
shoulder-shrugging indifference towards ruthless art
market soul destroying tricky ways. No wonder Pessoa's
impressive healthy detachment toward the worldwide art
scene racing struggle, keeps him psychologically safe
and sound, basically neutral to all different forms
of pressure, such as silent treatment, hard to get playing,
pseudo-snobbery high fevers, curriculum vitae obsessed
go-betweens, you name it... Thereby it's only natural
that the extent of the artist's evasive give me break
attitude has indeed by now reached an effortless degree
of pure automatism in which the "no pain no gain"
old recipe sounds rather like a senseless, useless outmoded
quotation. However, in spite of all these mysterious
slippery shadows of the past, on the whole, Antonio
Pessoa should have no reasons to be complaining about.
As a matter of fact, let alone his reputable working
capacity, talent, skills, technical level and prolific
gifted imagination, he actually got pretty lucky along
the way by coming across real gentlemen in the art business
who managed his art career with absolute transparency,
vision and punctuality, furthermore managing to establish
a truly lifetime friendship relation with the artist.
Thanks to these highly ethical and efficient art mediators
and gallery owners, Pessoa became a premature wealthy
artist and next thing he knew he was climbing fast up
the hill, provided with the proper stimulation, at the
right place and at the right time, feeding him with
the dynamic incentive for super art action, and consequently
moving his technical improvement process forward with
such a force, to indeed such an extent of burning creativity
and passionate working combustion that a whole lot sooner
than it was to be expected, Antonio Pessoa had become
a true art studio wizard and his brand-name an unquestionable
contemporary visual arts phenomenon. As confident as
can be, from then on, the painting machine magic had
a sponsored one way ticket to the exciting life of a
successful young professional artist. Overcoming the
inevitable series of up and down momentum shifts, Pessoa
increasing faith and belief in his oeuvre and project,
was obviously sustained by his public, clients, family,
close friends and very particularly by those exception
to the rule distinguished art mediators. Antonio Pessoa
today recalls all his endless collection of cinematic
episodes with art dealers, with a contagious smile on
his face, definitely not a bitter smile but actually
a smile of cool retrospective amusement, taking this
with the right measure of healthy detachment, all out
in the open, no hard feelings whatsoever, and absolutely
not like things one would rather have left unsaid. I'm
not going to mention names obviously to ensure my genuine
respect for individuals right to privacy, neither is
Pessoa particularly interested in stain on whoever's
reputation and public image. However, the general image
and prototypical pattern of the average art dealers,
those who have become the backstage actors of Antonio
Pessoa - Fine Art productions play, after all these
years turned out to become a rather hazy in outline
cartoon-like caricature representing a cross-between
something like a raptorial bird, card shark, buoyant
bluffer,wishy-washy salesman, tricky wily, small-time
streetwise, slimy schemer, tricky Dik, foxy-sly wiseguy...
The eighteen years old young artist for the first time
experiencing back in the 80's, downtown Amsterdam, Holland,
the standard territory of weekly appoitments with veteran
art dealers, soon finds out that ironically his strong
spot ( super art production speedy capacity and artistic
quality ), turns out to be his fragile weak spot as
well. How come? Even back then, any art dealer entering
Antonio Pessoa's Damstraat Studio for the very flashy
first time, knew right away he had just found a gold
mine and that the priority number one was to show no
special interest whatsoever. On the other hand the art
dealer also knew that the option of letting the bird
fly away... or shall we say, letting the gold slip through
his fingers was totally out of question. Period. Thereby,
after a short while of morbid pondering, the edgy agressiveness
was on aiming at making the artist feel helplessly puzzled
and most important of all, slippery insecure and anxious
across the nail-biting business meeting. The young artist's
huge art production let alone his naive good-hearted
innocence were the main substantial ingredients for
him to have to go through this short-term although painfully
hard art marketing empirical apprenticeship. The art
dealer's eyes were by then already glittering with the
Overstocked and Underpriced smiley emotions greedy scintillant
gleam. Nevertheless, the smart young artist sooner than
they expected, learned the tweaks and tricks of the
art business secrets. More than enough talent was available
in order to cover both art production and art dealers
fast efficient taming operation. Furthermore, there
was extra bad news for all of them small-time artist's
soul corrupters. Antonio Pessoa at the age of eighteen
was already a full-swing professional musicien, if not
a millionaire at least definitely already making a pretty
decent living out of playing solo or with local dutch
bands. This and that plus all the other gifted resources
systematically pushing the creative sharp young man
back on the right track, turned out to be a flash splash
surprise for the mistaken victory assuming art dealers
suddenly in a wink of an eye all at once switching from
business meetings conductors to passive resigned restless
spectators. Throughout the years Pessoa indeed meets
a diversity of art dealers each and everyone of them
from different backgrounds, from various cultures, perspectives
and inevitable with different personal attitudes specifically
when it comes to deal with an artist, obviously aiming
at the essential motivation. Achieve fast profitable
right on the spot financial goals. Always in the process
of improving his ability to previsualize any art dealer's
profile before shooting, the artist's judgment accuracy
and precision became gradually more and more in tune,
like a super efficient detecting radar on the look out
for those red light warning signals of fraudulent intentions,
abusive behavior and that obnoxiously disgusting greedy
ruthlessness of the mediocre kind. Once passed the Trial
by Fire test, in the very early nineties, Pessoa has
become unquestionably an experienced soldier in the
art business "battlefield". A true surviver,
ready for the tough going, a real-life academy graduate
ready to step on the art stage. "Fait accompli"!
However, before he actually comes to meet Mr. Doright,
he still has to deal with another one of the nasty kind.
Antonio Pessoa in his late twenties is willing to drop
music for good, at least professionally and get fully
commited with fine art,switching from noisy smoky, crowded
wild night life to more suitable lifestyle in which
he feels a whole lot more well-fit for his concentration
enhancement and decreasing after midnight distractions
therefore get down to an intensive experimental period
through which he is indeed going to do his very best
in order to make his art performance consolidate into
a rather mature, impactful and enduring style. Once
again in a few months his art production bacomes an
awe eliciting colossal canvases, watercolors and drawings
collection, the result of yet another prodigious storm
of feverish creative art action. Obviously, after a
short period he reaches that stand by point in which
the artist wishes to get rid of his average quality
oeuvre in the process of making a wise quality art selection.
He always did it and still does it this way. However,
not for any price, and most importantly not giving in
by surrendering to no art dealer's whimsical, capricious
and at the art business time sensible to no other passion
but avarice. Easier said than done! In spite of the
artist's doctorial how to deal with art dealers master
diploma, this one proved to be a raging lion in the
art business Coliseum. Pessoa actually bullfights him
during almost one year the best way he knows how. Every
business meeting turns out to be a Sergio Leone like
movie, maybe "once upon a time in hell" or
"run, art dealer, run". These play and rewind
heated sessions indeed might have looked like a truly
surrealistic two- players no card deck required Poker
Game, where in this particular comedy-drama situation
the general rules were "mix a lot of skill with
a lucky charm spell" and maybe... you'll get out
alive well! The artist had long assumed that if you
take art business too seriously besides the possibility
of end up getting an overnight headache you might as
well wake up mid afternoon with one of those reality
twisted smiling hangovers just to find out you're on
your own with no art stock whatsoever and just a few
bucks in your unpatched-hole pockets. This stressful
period's happy ending was when the artist finally met
Mr. Moreira, with whom he was about to have definitely
the biggest break of the nineties. As time goes by and
his grand piano gradually becomes an untouched abandoned
dusty Steinway at the south end of his living room,
Antonio Pessoa throws himself into his most striking
art production odyssey up to then. The Golden Period
great adventure had just begun. During these super creative
smashing times the reciprocal link between the artist
and his new art agent-gallery owner and friend, couldn't
possibly have been better indeed. Not only the gallerist
provided him with a rather impressive substantial financial
punctual assistence, for the artist to have become almost
overnight a wealthy young art maker, but also Antonio
Pessoa knew how to make the best out of this only once
in a lifetime opportunity, by becoming a fully commited
eight days a week fine art professional, furthermore
improving at light speed, technically, aesthetically
and conceptually. Indeed an amazing combination of motivation,
positive energy, innovation, intensive studio action,
let alone his ever-present incandescent imagination.
Nevertheless, on the whole, I wouldn't dare try to make
you believe that from the early nineties on, the beating
around the bush art dealers eventual negotiations were
over and out for good in the hill climbing artist's
life. Not quite just yet, I'm afraid. However, the past
likewise situations quantity were severely minimized
in equal proportion to Antonio Pessoa's increasing success,
financial status and oeuvre sales rates. One way or
another this specific idea of the streetwise wiseguy
art dealer, far from having traumatized him, whatsoever,
on the contrary it provided the artist's imagination
with that spicy something which over the years, now
and then, actually managed to ignite his inspiration
just enough to come up with a reasonable amount of artworks
representing his own light-hearted (almoust hilarious)
interpretation of this art market small-timers who unfortunately
never seem to successfully grab the intelligent dynamic
context of what a long-term profitable business relationship
between artist and mediator is actually all about. What
a shame, if you ask me! Anyway...
